Commercial establishments specializing in the preparation of pizzas generally use devices to aid in the preparation of such pizzas which are designed with a number of frequently competing goals in mind. First and foremost, the preparation devices must produce pizzas in a proper manner, and on a predictably repeatable basis which are appealing in both taste and appearance. Secondly, the devices must be able to satisfy production requirements in an efficient, user-friendly manner, without undue space, power or labor requirements. Additionally, in view of applicable health and safety codes, the devices should be constructed so that they may be thoroughly and easily cleaned to insure the healthfulness of products prepared thereby.
With regard to currently known methods in the production of pizzas, generally the two most time-consuming stages of the production process involve the forming of the crust and the baking of the prepared pizza pie. With regard to the formation of the crust, a variety of pizza dough flattening devices are presently available for commercial use. Additionally, a number of devices for par baking the crust of the pizza are likewise available for commercial use. Though such flattening and par baking devices are generally adequate to perform the pizza production process, they suffer in relation to some of the requirements discussed above.
The utilization of a par baked crust significantly reduces the baking time associated with a pizza, thereby greatly diminishing the production time associated with the preparation process. Presently known dough flattening devices typically do not include the capacity to simultaneously par bake the dough while the dough flattening/crust forming process is being conducted. Thus, the time savings obtained in the cooking process by using a par baked crust is often negated by the additional time needed to conduct the par baking process after the crust has been formed by a conventional flattening device. Though it is well known for commercial pizza establishments to use frozen par baked crusts, such crusts, in addition to being costly, must often be stored within a refrigerator for days or weeks before being utilized, thus diminishing the taste quality of pizzas produced therefrom.
In addition to not having the capacity to par bake a crust, many currently known flattening devices also do not include the capacity to produce pizza crusts of more than one size (i.e., diameter). Due to the inability of such flattening devices to produce more than one size of pizza crust, many commercial pizza establishments are burdened with the costs of purchasing and maintaining multiple flattening devices, each of which are utilized to produce only a single size of pizza crust. Further, in most currently known flattening devices, the formed pizza crust must be removed from the device and placed into a suitable pan for further preparation and baking. As will be recognized, this transfer operation of the formed crust from the flattening device to the pizza pan increases the overall length of the preparation process, in addition to frequently resulting in damage to the pizza crust during the transfer.
Prior to the present invention, no dough flattening devices or par baking devices have satisfactorily addressed the previously mentioned deficiencies in the manner suggested by the present invention. The present invention provides a pizza press for simultaneously forming and par baking the crust of a pizza. The pizza press disclosed herein also incorporates an interchangeable upper mold for facilitating the preparation of differently sized pizza crusts. Additionally, the press is adapted to accommodate differently sized pizza pans which function as a lower mold in the press, thus allowing subsequent preparation procedures to be conducted without the necessity of having to transfer the formed crust from the press into a pizza pan.